5 Champagne Cocktails to Ring in the New Year

5 CHAMPAGNE COCKTAILS TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR

With Christmas out of the way it is now time to focus on New Year's! I usually head out of NYC for New Year's Eve, escape the madness, and have a quiet one with my family somewhere (preferably warm!). But, when I'm here, I love having a fun evening in with friends and family. The thought of going out and dealing with all the crowds just isn’t my thing. Besides, who doesn’t love a party with little finger bites to snack on along with some champagne cocktails!? Keeping it super simple is key, and I want to share some easy, champagne cocktails with you - the best way to end the holiday season!

FRENCH 75

The French 75 is a classic and super simple - gin, simple, lemon juice + champagne. You can't go wrong with this one.

SORREL CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

This is hands-down one of my favorite champagne cocktails to make and is always a feature at my events. Sorrel is a sweetened, hibiscus drink scented with cloves and cinnamon that hails from the West Indies. I love to make a sorrel simple syrup and top with champagne for a gorgeous, sweet-tart, rose-colored cocktail. Take 1 cup dried hibiscus flowers + 1 cup sugar + 1 cup water and bring up to a boil - if you want to up the ante, throw in a cinnamon stick and 4 whole cloves. Remove from the heat and let steep 20 minutes. Strain and cool the syrup. Add 2 oz. of the cooled syrup to a champagne flute and top with the champagne of your choice!

GRAPEFRUIT AND GINGER SPARKLER

With only 3 ingredients, grapefruit juice + Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur + champagne, this drink is easy, elegant and tasty. Although I'm not a grapefruit eater myself, a touch of grapefruit in a cocktail (think: paloma) adds the perfect bitter note. The ginger liqueur adds just the right amount of sweetness, and the whole thing goes down really easy....a bit too easy if you know what I mean.

FEEL THIS COCKTAIL

The basis for this cocktail is again citrus because 'tis the season. Orange juice + lime juice form the base. Add a little vodka, brown simple syrup, and champagne and top with raspberries to keep it festive!

CHAMPAGNE SORBET FLOATERS

When in doubt, go to your grocery store (or local bodega...), pick up a pint or two of your favorite sorbet and throw it on top of champagne, prosecco, sparkline wine, cava or whatever you are serving. It will look gorgeous, and, as the sorbet melts, it will infuse your champagne with fruity sweetness!

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year's and all the best in 2016!!!

Blueberry-Hibiscus Smash

BLUEBERRY-HIBISCUS SMASH

It feels like the long wait is over and the warmth has finally arrived! I've been doing fam brunches for the past couple weeks - inviting friends to come by when they can on a Sunday, cooking up a storm, and letting the day linger as we all eat and chat and have a few cocktails. One of my favorite things to do is make a huge pitcher of (unsweetened) hibiscus tea ahead of time; it's the perfect mixer. I love combining it with freshly squeezed juice from the market or from whatever I have on hand for an arnold palmer of sorts. With a great, infused simple syrup (ginger, mint, rose, clove), I have endless variations for both mocktails and cocktails.

For this cocktail, I keep it super simple - muddling together mint, fresh blueberries, and lemon. Honey sweetens it up a bit, and, of course, the hibiscus tea adds tartness. The smash was created as a simpler version of the mint julep - it only requires a bit of muddling rather than making a mint simple syrup or extract. It was originally made with whiskey, but there are tons of versions with vodka, rum and gin. For this one I flip flop between using rum and vodka (I can't decide which I like better!), so pick your own poison and enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields one cocktail

6 or 7 mint leaves

8 or 9 blueberries, divided

2 lemon slices

2 teaspoons honey

4 ounces unsweetened, hibiscus tea*

2 ounces vodka or rum

Procedure

In a cocktail shaker, muddle together the mint leaves with the 4 or 5 blueberries and the lemon slices to release the juices and oils. Add the honey, hibiscus tea, and spirit and shake well to combine.

Transfer to a rocks glass filled halfway with ice and garnish with the remaining blueberries and a mint sprig.

*For loose hibiscus tea, my ratio is 1 cup dried hibiscus leaves per 10 cups water. I generally let mine sit overnight before straining,

A Twist on the Classic Pisco Sour

Happy New Year! As many of you know, I spent the past few weeks doing some serious culinary exploration of Peru and Brazil (so expect me to go a bit South American-crazy with my recipes in the coming weeks). I was blown away in Peru by the incredible produce – fruits, vegetables and herbs I had never seen or heard of. The cooking was super fresh, with Lima highlighting a lot of the country’s famous seafood dishes and Cusco showing me more of the homey, Andean classics. I thought I’d start this year with a cheers to 2012, a twist on a classic Peruvian cocktail (which I drank like water…).

Pisco is a clear grape brandy produced in the winemaking regions of Peru and Chile and is the national spirit of both countries. Both also lay claim to the pisco sour, but I’ve only experienced the Peruvian version, which I was taught has 3 parts pisco to 1 part lime juice. Throw in some simple syrup for sweetness, an egg white for a bit of foamy, creaminess and a dash of bitters and you have one of the most refreshing cocktails out there.

I saw a ton of different versions while I was there, everything from passionfruit to mint. But I thought I would make something a bit more seasonally appropriate, since this mid-20’s temperature makes “refreshing” the last thing you want to think about. This is sort of a cross, a pisco sour-apple really. I used a combination of fresh fuji apple juice and lime juice and infused the simple syrup with some mulling spices – cinnamon, clove, allspice, and a star anise for good measure. The result is a cold drink with warm spices that’s totally in the winter spirit…

A few things: For pisco sours, Peruvians use the juice of a local, small lime that’s extremely aromatic. I suggest using key lime juice to get as close to that flavor as possible. Also, if you are making these for a party, I suggest making them in batches to prevent the drink getting a bit bitter or the egg white from completely separating out. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

Spice-Infused Simple Syrup*:

Yields about ¾ cup

½ cup white sugar

½ cup water

2 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

3 whole dried allspice berries

2 star anise

2 bay leaf

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 inch piece of meyer lemon rind

Pisco Sour Apple:

1 ¾ cups pisco

¼ cup lime juice (preferably key lime)

1/3 cup fresh apple juice

¾ cup spice-infused simple syrup

2 egg whites

ice

angostura bitters (garnish)

Procedure

For the simple syrup, bring all ingredients in a small saucepan up to a boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, cover and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain and cool before using.

For the pisco sour apple, pour pisco, both juices, and the simple syrup into a blender. Blend briefly. Add egg whites and blend for another 10 seconds. Pour into glasses over ice and add a few dashes of angostura bitters to each. Serve immediately.

*Feel free to use your favorite mulling spices here and make this your own. I used meyer lemon rind because I had some sitting around and felt it would work well with the lime juice. Orange rind is great too.

Yuzu-Basil Rickey

The art of the summer cocktail…something light, refreshing, icy cool, perfect for a summer bbq or a breezy night out on the porch (or stoop as the case may be), and preferably in a pitcher so friends can help themselves! I personally love something that has a tart-sweetness to it like a mojito, caipirinha, or a spiked lime rickey, which was the inspiration for this drink.

I’ve talked a bit about yuzu in the past, but, basically, it’s a Japanese citrus that has an interesting flavor mix of lime, grapefruit and mandarin with a musky and slightly salty quality to it. It’s rarely found fresh here, but a bottle of yuzu juice from the Asian market will last forever (a few dashes go a long way). I love it in salad dressings, anywhere I might use lemon, and particularly in cocktails like this one.

A lime rickey is pretty simple – usually it’s made from fresh lime juice, carbonated water, and sometimes simple syrup to sweeten. My take here replaces lime juice with lemon and yuzu juices, includes club soda, and is spiked with vodka. The very simple syrup gets infused with fresh basil leaves, which complements the yuzu incredibly. This drink goes down a bit too easy if you know what I mean (what vodka?), but truly it’s my perfect summer drink – flavorful and totally refreshing. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 8 to 10

1 ¼ cups water

1 ¼ cups sugar

10 to 12 leaves of basil

¾ cup lemon juice

1 ½ tbsp yuzu juice

2 ¾ cups club soda

1 ¼ cup vodka

Procedure

First, make the basil-infused simple syrup. In a saucepan, heat the water, sugar and basil stirring until water comes up to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain and cool.

In a large pitcher, mix together the remaining ingredients with the cooled simple syrup. It’s best to let it chill for a few hours for the flavors to come together, but it’s still great right away.

Serve the yuzu-basil rickey over ice.

St. Lucian Rum Punch

Hope everyone had a fun Memorial Day! I was in St. Lucia this past weekend for a wedding and was awed by the beauty (and cuisine) of the island. Now, I usually post recipes that I create, but I made a special request to learn how to make this delicious cocktail and just can’t keep it to myself. This rum punch will be the signature drink this summer for all of my bbq’s and cookouts.

Now, it’s my understanding that each island lays claim to the original rum punch, and I am not taking any sides! But this version is fruity, a bit strong, but goes down easy (it may have supplied a significant percentage of my vitamins this weekend…). I also wasn’t completely exact with my measurements here (i’ll let you guess why!), but it’s easy enough to do to your personal tastes.

As with all rum punches, it’s best to make this a day or two in advance to let the flavor intensifies. Juices, bitters, rum, and a few key spices make this a gorgeous warm weather cocktail.

Enjoy! and thank you Diane for the tutorial!

Ingredients

Serves 10 to 12

3 cups orange juice

3 cups pineapple juice

1 cup lime juice

a healthy pinch of cinnamon

a healthy pinch of nutmeg

6 generous shakes of angostura bitters

2 1/2 cups dark or light rum

grenadine syrup (will give amount in the procedure)

1 1/4 cups simple syrup

Procedure

In a large bowl or pitcher, mix together juices, spices, bitters and rum. Add grenadine syrup until the punch reaches the color of a flaming sunset. Grenadine syrups differ in sweetness, so I like to add the simple syrup after this point and taste along the way to make sure it’s not too sweet.

Again, it’s great to refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight to let the flavors combine, but it’s also delicious served immediately. Serve over ice.

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